First Encounter
by GintaxAlvissForever
Summary: Shinji surprises Mika by paying her a visit when she's in the hospital. Despite their bickering, the two end up recalling when they met and it involved a stupid dare where they all went to Soejima Mansion.


**First Encounter**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Lux Pain. I only own Richie, Reigen, Fuji and Sora. **

**Summary: Shinji surprises Mika by paying her a visit when she's in the hospital. Despite their bickering, the two end up recalling when they met and it involved a stupid dare where they all went to Soejima Mansion. **

**Pairing: Implied Shinji/Mika**

**Rated: K+ (for older children)**

**Genre: Humor and Friendship**

**Warning: Swearing and unintentional OOC**

**This is my Secret Santa to TofuKitten. The request was a platonic flashback of Mika, Rui, Akira and Ryo as kids. This does not mean I can't imply it in the future or bring up Shinji or Yayoi who aren't friends until recently. Given how I already have a Lux Pain universe set up in all my stories, this one-shot will be in that one too. Hope you like it.**

* * *

"I'm so bored!" Mika Nozaki whined for the fifth time that day. After nearly getting killed by the serial killer again, she landed in the hospital and had to stay there for a couple of days before the doctors would release her. Naturally, she didn't mind getting free food, but not being able to find the next scoop annoyed her. She literally had to get the attention of the nurses to avoid boredom. They didn't take it that well. It got to the point where one of them named Suzu told her that she had to be quiet and not disturb the other patients or she would wind up with less food on her plate.

So here Mika was alone with nothing but her phone in her hand. Her friends had already visited her the previous day to talk about their childhood. A nice conversation that was able to bring them all together (mainly the girls and Atsuki Saijo. Ryo Unami and Shinji Naruse were talking to Akira Mido on the other side of the wall and making so much noise). Now that they were continuing on with school and life without her, she was forced to use her mind and think. The first thing that came to mind was to text Atsuki to see her since she already had suspicious that he wasn't doing anything in particular. As she expected though, he didn't respond to her calls. Next she decided to text Rui Yamase asking if she found her prince charming. That only got her a rude message telling her to mind her own business and didn't respond after that. Yayoi Kamishiro was next on her list but she responded that she was busy taking care of her little sister Nami Kamishiro.

Mika threw her phone down on the bed and rested her head against the pillow. There was no way she was going to call Akira. He was released from the hospital yesterday despite having worse injuries than her. What do you expect when the doctor taking care of him is Reigen Miyamase, the cruel doctor that doesn't give a shit about his patients, but at the same time knows who will live and who won't if he releases them or pulls the plug. Ryo didn't have a phone, but it's not like she wanted to talk to him. The only one left was Shinji…but she brushed that idea out of her mind. Why would she want to talk to a jerk like him? He was as bad as Kyosuke Kagami for his rude attitude toward her even when she was trying to be kind and considerate toward him.

As she rolled around in the bed debating on what she would do in her spare time, there was a knock on the door from the same nurse that told her to calm down. She was chirpy now that she was able to ramble on her job.

"There's someone here to see you Ms. Nozaki." She hummed as she pushed a short teen with purple hair into the room.

"H-Hey! You can't just-"

"Shinji, what are you doing here?"

Suzu giggled as she continued her rambling. "He's worried about your wellbeing. It's true love. A hikikomori who thought would never be able to leave his house suddenly ventures out into the sun to deliver a gift from above. How romantic."

"She's crazy!" Shinji shouted yet his cheeks were bright pink from her words. "Go do your job and check on the other patients instead of fantasizing a fictional relationship we _**definitely **_do not have."

Suzu pointed as she slowly backed up. "You don't have to be so snappy. You're almost like a tsundere almost."

Shinji just wanted to shoot himself when Suzu left the two alone. Mika found this very amusing and continued.

"A tsundere huh? You and Rui aren't so different after all."

"I am not a tsundere." Shinji grumbled as he sat in the chair next to her. "That doesn't even begin to describe me."

The bluenette wasn't convinced and just laughed at the excuses the hacker was coming up with. "Anyway, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to be looking into that information?"

"Can't I take a break every once and a while? I'm almost done…besides…" Shinji grumbled. "My sister heard about what happened and demanded that I take her homemade cookies to you."

Mika instantly perked up as Shinji ended up giving her a lunch box full of white chocolate chip cookies. The cookies weren't spectacular looking like Yayoi's, but they were still delicious nonetheless. Mika had never gone over to Shinji's house that often in the past, but has encountered Shinji's older sister Fuji Naruse in multiple locations particularly in middle school where she would show up and embarrass her little brother spoiling him with food that she made. Shinji seemed to treasure her cooking but Mika could only assume it was because his parents were never home to cook anything, and that his sister was already out of the house doing her dream job as an archeologist.

"Sweet! Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

Mika was already throwing her hands toward the food but Shinji pulled it back.

"Be patient Mika! It's a wonder how people can stand you."

The reporter pouted as he slowly opened the lunch box. In her mind, he was doing this on purpose to watch her squirm. The cookies looked better than usual, but given she hadn't had her cookies in years, Fuji probably improved. Mika snatched the cookies from him and started to chow down. They tasted better than she imagined.

"Wonderful~"

"That's good to know…you can't take all of them…"

Shinji ended up munching on the cookie a few times before eating it. Mika ended up gulping up the cookies that Shinji couldn't horde for himself. He grumbled at the sight before her.

"Honestly Mika. You're like a hippo eating everything in sight. Can you not make a mess?"

"What did you just call me?"

The bluenette blathered on and on about her weight. Shinji drowned her up wondering why the hell he was there in the first place.

"Shinji!"

"What?!"

"…Do you remember when we first met?"

That caught the short teen off guard. "W-What? Why are you bringing that up now?"

"I just wanted to see if you remembered."

"Of course I do. How can I forget your torturing me the first day of high school and then bugging me when Sora-sempai pulled that stupid stunt on the last day of school last year?"

"No way! That's not when we first met, but you made me remember the funnier moments we had together."

"Funny? You stole my food upon introduction! And with Sora-sempai, you embarrassed me after the show! I don't appreciate you being a gossip hen and I'm not gay for him! But…what do you mean that wasn't our first meeting?"

Mika was too busy cracking up to hear Shinji's question. He had to repeat the question when she stopped.

"Don't you remember the stupid dare we were on?"

"We?"

"Rui and I dared Akira and Ryo to go into Soejima Mansion and find the dead body that was said to haunt the area." Mika had to explain. "But Akira was daring us to go with them because they were both chickening out at the thought. It was pathetic."

Shinji blinked before he seemed to recall something to. "Oh yeah…that was also the time when…Richie dragged me along with her…"

* * *

_The two were recalling two different things approximating six or seven years ago. Shinji couldn't remember the exact year given the memory was almost lost while Mika wouldn't be able to get the date right._

_Mika and Rui dared Akira and Ryo to go into Soejima Mansion, but Akira dared the girls to come with them so they could see if the legend was true. Meanwhile, Richie Alberd dragged Shinji to the same place earlier in the evening. She was a girl that loved the idea of going on an adventure with the purple haired kid. Shinji just wanted to be locked up in his room with the first and only laptop that his parents bought him, but Richie wanted him to be with her. _

_The two groups ended up meeting at different times. Because Shinji lived next to Soejima Mansion, he and Richie arrived first. Mika's group arrived later. _

_It was obvious chaos from there. Soejima Mansion was not haunted like the residents claimed it was. The mansion was just abandoned and dusty. Upon hearing that there were other kids coming into the night, Richie was going to have fun scaring them._

_For Shinji it took a turn for the worse. Just because the place was abandoned didn't mean there were objects in the room that could easily kill someone at will. The knight armor in the mansion for example had a sword when swung down could really hurt someone. Richie had no powers whatsoever. What she ended up doing was when Mika's group went into the armory; she decided to make her move._

"_Come on Mika, I want to go home!" Ryo whined. _

"_Don't be such a chicken." Rui said with a laugh. "There's nothing here."_

_She went over to the armor and touched it. Immediately, it started to move. The kids froze when they saw slight movement. Rui didn't notice that the knight was moving until she turned around._

"_Boo."_

_The group ended up screaming as they rushed out of the armory trying to get away from the armor that was moving on its own. When they tried to get out of the room, Rui ended up pushing Ryo out of the way, knocking off his glasses in the process. The knight ended up stepping on the glasses simply because it did not care what was destroyed._

"_Intruders must be eliminated…" _

_If the group wasn't in such a panicked state, they could tell that the voice was a young girl that was around their age awkwardly moving the knight. They wanted to get out though, but Soejima Mansion was like a maze and they didn't mark where the entrance was. They were stuck with a knight chasing after them._

_Unfortunately for the group, they ended up splitting up because of their panic. Mika was separated from the group while Akira was dragging a half blind Ryo around. Rui was ahead of the group far away from the knight. Shinji was just listening to them freaking out in another room and laughed. He didn't want to move around because Richie thought his presence would ruin the prank, so he was forced to stay in an abandoned room with many cardboard boxes. Besides the screaming, it was probably the quietest place in the mansion…until Mika came barging into the room hiding behind the first box she saw. The door closed on it's own but that might have to be because of how broken the door was. _

"_Wahh…I knew this was a bad idea!" The young girl cried as she tried to shut herself in the box. "Must…hide…"_

"_There is no reason to be scared." Shinji ended up saying. "It's just an act."_

_This caused the opposite affect. Mika shrieked as she curled up in fetal position. _

"_Eeek! Get away from me! I'm sorry for invading your home Mr. Ghost!"  
_

"…_Ghost…really?"_

"_I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry-"_

_Shinji ended up looking into the box causing Mika to punch the face. Shinji was knocked back into another box crying. _

"_Oww…"_

_The bluenette refused to look up to see whom she just injured. She was too scared to do so. Shinji growled as he came back toward the box and avoided the next punch thrown at him._

"_I'm not a ghost. And that knight isn't either." _

"…"

"_Come on. Get out of the box. I'll lead you out of the place and show you the knight isn't dangerous."_

_Mika opened her eyes slowly and peeked her head out of the box. Seeing the young boy made her calm down. _

"_Y-You're human?" _

"_Of course I am! I can't believe you believe in ghosts. Armor can only move if there's someone inside of it."_

_Mika continued to look at Shinji as he extended his hand to her. _

"_Come on. Let's go."_

_Slowly, she took his hand causing Shinji to give her a small, reassuring smile. _

"_Umm…what is your name…if you're not a ghost? I-I'm Mika Nozaki?"_

"_Shinji Naruse."_

* * *

Mika laughed at the end of remembering the events.

"And then Akira ended up tipping the armor that Richie was in."

"Then you yelled at her for scaring you…it's amazing that you still remembered us in high school."

"Of course. How could you guys do such a thing to us? We honestly thought we were going to die!"

"Ghosts don't exist Mika. We all know that."

"But we were kids back then!"

"I didn't believe it."

"You were cynical!"

"And you're naïve."

The two ended up glaring at each other with their insults before Mika ended up smiling.

"What are you smiling about? There was nothing good that came from that night."

"You're right. There wasn't anything good that night…but…I was still thankful back then. You gave me a little courage that has stayed with me to this day…and with that…I thank you."

The hacker's cheeks turned bright pink as he avoided eye contact with the reporter. "D-Don't thank you! I felt bad for you back then! You were so hopeless and I couldn't leave you alone! Dammit! Don't expect me to protect you again when things get serious!"

Shinji ended up getting up from his chair and leaving.

"Shinji wait!"

He didn't stop. He opened the door and closed it. His heart wouldn't stop beating though.

"…Idiot…how am I supposed to act…when you're nice to me?"

* * *

**Me: I'm going to end it here with 2774 words.**

**Li: Really? It sounds like you ran out of ideas.  
**

**Me: Be quiet. I was trying to make it sweet. It ended up focusing on Shinji and Mika but the childhood of the four was brought up. If people read my fanfiction, they would know that I mention a lot of the OC characters. Shinji's sister Fuji is in my Durarara story (given my headcanon is that Durarara and Lux Pain take place in the same universe). **

**But I need to bring up something about armor. If the armor is too heavy for someone, you can easily suffocate if you stay in the armor too long. Richie was not in the armor for long so she wouldn't have to worry about something like that. **

**Also, I bet people will notice how Shinji said he won't protect her next time. Cue that scene in episode 20. **

**But that's mainly it. I'm just glad my secret santa is done. I hope the person will like it. I have to work on a lemon that my friend wants me to do for the RP now and I need to sit down and work on chapter 7 of Trick and Treat…yeah that story will take forever with the way Pokémon is heading…ja ne!  
**


End file.
